Organizational governance of activation policy: Transparency as an organizational ideal in a Swedish welfare agency. (30th October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hollertz, Katarina; Jacobsson, Kerstin; Seing, Ida
• Other Names: van Berkel Rik guestEditor.; Larsen Flemming guestEditor.; Caswell Dorte guestEditor.
• Is Part Of: International social security review. Volume 71:Number 4(2018)
• Page Start: 71
• Page End: 89
• Publication Date: 2018-10-30
• Subjects: return to work -- cash sickness benefit -- rehabilitation -- social security administration -- Sweden; retour au travail -- indemnité de maladie -- réadaptation -- administration de la sécurité sociale -- Suède; regreso al trabajo -- rehabilitación -- administración de la seguridad social -- Suecia; berufliche Wiedereingliederung -- Rehabilitation -- Verwaltung für soziale Sicherheit -- Schweden; Social security -- Periodicals; Public welfare -- Periodicals; 368.4
• DOI: 10.1111/issr.12190
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0020-871X

Abstract

Abstract: The Swedish Social Insurance Agency ( Försäkringskassan – SSIA) and its frontline staff have a key role in the implementation of activation policy. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted at local offices, this article investigates how the transparency ideal, as an integral part of the organizational governance of the activation policy, is negotiated and enacted in the everyday life of a welfare bureaucracy. The analysis shows the central role that the transparency ideal plays in the alignment of frontline staff with the normative regime of the agency. While the transparency ideal is central to the internal organizational life of the SSIA, the analysis shows how transparency is much less salient in relation to clients and other relations with the outside world.